80% wage clarification

KGoepel

I lost my job Monday 16th March because of Coronavirus. After government announcements the MD has asked me to call him to discuss continuingmy employment. I have a year 1 child who now can't go to school and needs homeschooling. I have no one else to help care for her. I am confused about how this 80% wage works. I think I would not be expected to work so would be able to homeschool my child properly but don't know if I would be forced to work from home? Would my notice of termination of my contract be cancelled? I was 10 days short of being entitled to redundancy (2 year minimum in uk would be 26th March) when I received my notice of termination of contract letter. I am currently in my 1 month notice period stated in my contract of employment but not required to go to work or work at home. I am so confused and want to know where I stand before the conversation with the MD, can anyone help? If I do go back are there rules for them not making me redundant as soon as government payments stop?

calcotti

It is a requirement of the scheme that you do no work for the employer concerned. See the section on furloughed workers here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-guidance-for-employees
i am not aware of anything that would prevent you being made redundant when the scheme ends and I don’t see how any such restriction could work without undermining the scheme. From your point of view even if that happended you would still have had several months of ongoing wage.

Jeremy535897

I suspect your employer let you go because you were about to become entitled to redundancy. I am not a lawyer, but I wonder whether your employment terminates (for redundancy entitlement purposes) at the end of the notice period, rather than on 16 March? That could be very important. It also raises the question as to whether your redundancy was fair, as required by law.
Having said that, it may be that your employer is throwing you an important lifeline. If he cancels your termination before it happens, I assume (but it is for a lawyer to comment) that you will be treated as never leaving, so that if your employer applies to be in the coronavirus job retention scheme, and lays you off with you doing no work for them at all, you should get at least 80% of your old salary for at least 3 months, when the alternatives open to you are limited (universal credit). As to your final question, there are no rules preventing them from making you redundant in three months' time, so long as it is fair as required by law, but what have you got to lose? There may be some abstruse legal point I am missing (perhaps they realise they made a mistake on not firing you 21 days earlier and are trying to dodge a redundancy liability). If I were you, I would be polite and grateful for the offer to continue your employment, but ask some questions as to what prompted the change of heart, and check they are going into the coronavirus job retention scheme and will apply it to you.